Chinese scientists plan better machine to hunt 'God particle'

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BEIJING, Feb. 26 -- Chinese scientists are planning to build a better electron-positron collider, the latest effort in exploring the Higgs boson, or "God particle," a Chinese research body said on Tuesday.

The machine is aimed at accurately measuring the nature of the Higgs particle and exploring the regularity of fundamental physics, according to a symposium held by the Institute of High Energy Physics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences.

"Only by learning the nature of the Higgs particle can we possibly understand the future focus of particle physics," said Wang Yifang, head of the institute.

The planned collider is capable of producing 60 times more energy than the current collider, which is in operation in Beijing, Wang said.

"In the long run, it can be revamped into a large proton collider, which would generate seven times more energy than the Large Hadron Collider in operation in the European Organization for Nuclear Research based in Geneva," Wang added.

American physicist David Gross, a Nobel Prize winner in physics, said that China's proposal to build the next-generation accelerator will enable it to stand at the center of fundamental sciences.

The hunt for the Higgs boson has been a focus of particle physics research for decades. Scientists believe the particle does exist and its discovert is merely a matter of time.